5 Ingredients or Fewer

Three-Ingredient Flourless AppleĀ Pancakes

August  9, 2018
4
2 Ratings
Photo by Alaina Cillis
  • Prep time 5 minutes
  • Cook time 5 minutes
  • Serves 1
Author Notes

A deceptive recipe. A pancake this fluffy must be made with flour, mustn't it?. A pancake this rich surely must be concocted with more than just three simple ingredients, ingredients that sit patiently waiting in your fridge, week after week, begging to be made into pancakes? Or if nothing else, these pancakes are probably a labor-intensive, artistic endeavor that requires baking and stirring techniques acquired over a lifetime of pancakeophilia, tools that no one actually owns (least of all you), and more time than you have available to satisfy your hanger before your emotions override your better judgement.

No, my friends. These pancakes are not made with flour. Flour is not even listed amongst the three (!) simple, ordinary ingredients. Not only could a child of four make these pancakes, but he could do so in about 10 minutes. In addition, these pancakes are grain-free, refined-sugar free, and can be made vegan if you substitute something else in place of the butter. And they actually taste pretty good too. Considering. —Alaina Cillis

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Ingredients
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 schoolboy-sized Fuji apple, grated
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • Butter
  • Dash of salt
Directions
  1. Melt butter in a cast iron skillet (or other frying pan) over medium heat.
  2. While the butter is melting, combine all eggs, grated apple, vanilla, and salt in a mixing bowl.
  3. Fry pancakes according to normal practice. You may need to lower the heat to ensure even cooking of the pancakes.
  4. Eat the pancakes! I recommend more butter on top. Or whatever you like to eat on pancakes. Go crazy.

See what other Food52ers are saying.

2 Reviews

Yasmina9087 June 21, 2023
These are so good! I used 2 small apples and 2 small eggs.
gardenchickens November 30, 2021
The Schoolboy-size apple is a puzzle to me, I don't know if kids eat giant-sized fruits or prefer the little smaller snacking apples. So I started with a slightly larger-than-baseball-sized apple. It wasn't a Fuji, and it was a little too juicy. I kept grating until it looked like I had enough for a batter. It took 2/3 of the apple, I coulda/shoulda used a little more.

With most of the juice drained off, I had what seemed like a good batter. The pancakes did not brown as well as those in the photo and some of the pancakes looked like scrambled egg. The flavor was very good, and the result made a tasty, but not overly sweet, nighttime snack. I refrigerated the leftovers, but they don't look very appealing today.

The crispiness of the apple seems to be key. Some clarification on the amount of apple to use would be helpful. This type of recipe is nice to have for using up ingredients as well as having an easy way to sneak extra protein into diets for those who need it.

Next time I'll try it with a peanut butter dip or sauce on the side.